e u THE NAMELESS CITY u u 2 u u INTRODUCTION u u 5 u Original publication: Edizioni Piemme spa Text: Jeremy Belpois Edited by Davide Morosinotto Original cover art and insert: Iacopo Bruno Copyright © 2009 Atlantyca S.p.A Code Lyoko, the work, characters and story are the property of © Moonscoop. All Rights Reserved French translation: © Éditions Albin Michel SA, 2010 www.albin-michel-licence.fr ISBN : 978-2-226-21819-3 French adaptation: Lise Boëll, Estelle Cerutti and Marie-Céline Moulhiac Graphic adaptation: Luc Doligez Jeremy Belpois First part translated from Italian by Rhys Davies Second part translated from French by Kelsey and A_QueenOfFairys For CodeLyoko.Fr Proofreading by A_QueenOfFairys and Kelsey Images and formatting by Aquatikelfik Full credits and history V1.2.1 (22/9/2014) Tonight it will be ten years since I first met her, And I’ve decided the time has come to tell our story. To reveal the incredible facts that we witnessed together; Yumi Ishiyama, Ulrich Stern, Odd Della Robbia, And myself, Jeremy Belpois. And Aelita, naturally. Not one day has passed when I’ve not thought of you Aelita. This story is for all of my friends, But it is above all else for you, Aelita. Goodness knows if you’re still listening… Jeremy INTRODUCTION 1985. France. A brilliant professor named Waldo Schaeffer and his wife Anthea are working together on an international project of absolute secrecy named Carthage. When Waldo discovers that the true intent of Carthage is not to protect the nations of the world, but instead to develop a lethal new weapon, he decides to leave the project. This choice will lead to irreversible consequences. Anthea Schaeffer is kidnapped by mysterious individuals. Waldo however manages to save himself and their three- year-old daughter, Aelita. After a lengthy escape, he finds employment as a science teacher at Kadic Academy, in France, and under the name Franz Hopper secretly continues his experiments. There, in the basements of a disused factory close to the school, he builds a supercomputer and develops a virtual u 9 u u THE NAMELESS CITY u reality named Lyoko, intended to serve as an antidote to Car- thage. However after several years the organisation for which the professor worked succeed in tracing him. In 1994, when Aelita is twelve years old, Waldo Schaffer takes refuge in the virtual world of Lyoko with his severely- injured daughter and extinguishes the supercomputer that powers it. Many years later. Jeremy Belpois, a student at Kadic Academy, is thirteen years old, has few friends, and possess- es an innate talent for information technology. Having un- covered the existence of the old factory, through under- ground tunnels connecting it to Kadic, Jeremy finds the now- abandoned supercomputer and succeeds in reactivating it. In turn he discovers Aelita, who through the intervening years has remained imprisoned within Lyoko and has not aged. Together with his friends Ulrich, Odd and Yumi, Jere- my manages to materialise Aelita in the real world. From that moment on the five friends devote themselves to an embit- tered fight against X.A.N.A., a pitiless Artificial Intelligence that has taken possession of Lyoko. With great effort and after incredible virtual adventures, X.A.N.A. is at last defeated thanks to the sacrifice of Franz Hopper, who survived the many years in Lyoko in the form of a sphere of energy. u 10 u u INTRODUCTION u They are no longer in danger, not anymore. Or so it seems. On December 21st, some months after the defeat of X.A.N.A. and Hopper’s death, Aelita suddenly loses her memory. Therefore, on the final day of the Christmas holi- days, the friends decide to gather in the Hermitage, the villa where she lived for a period of time, to help her recover her lost memories. The five children begin to investigate the secrets of the Hermitage and discover a hidden room. Within, they find a video message recorded by the profes- sor which tells part of his history, but nevertheless leaves unsolved many inextricable mysteries. In his message Hopper entrusts to Aelita the task of find- ing her mother again and asks her to keep for him a golden pendant: a present that he and Anthea exchanged as a pledge of their love. In the meantime X.A.N.A., which the children believe to be defeated forever, progressively regains life and possesses an American girl named Eva Skinner. Sometime later, Eva makes her appearance at Kadic. Jeremy, Ulrich, Odd and Yumi choose to help reunite Ael- ita with her mother. u 11 u u THE NAMELESS CITY u They make this choice in good faith: trusting and confi- dent that they are now the only ones aware of the story of Hopper and Lyoko. They are convinced that there is nothing left to threaten them. And that X.A.N.A. no longer exists. They are very mistaken… u 12 u PROLOGUE THE MYSTERIOUS CITY The spires of the city open out before him like the shells of blue ladybugs, punctured by the dark holes of the spaceport. The roads are open, colourful ribbons that interweave be- tween the towers. It is a tranquil moment, with only a few ships flying from one place to another, and almost nobody about. In fact there are never many people in the city. The boy appears from nowhere. The air becomes dense, gathers together at one point, and there he is. He flexes his fingers and begins to fly, gathering speed, and then falls as he transforms his flight into a dive. He lands on one of the expressways that lead to the Wall and the road surface withdraws docilely to mitigate the impact. He begins to run: he cannot wait to meet up with his friend and show her the new places he has discovered. He adores flying with her along the secluded roads, venturing u 13 u u THE NAMELESS CITY u through the parks and into the empty little shops where they can take what they want and devise an infinite number of games. His friend says the city of pincer-like towers is incredible, but that it is deserted. The boy does not understand what she means: there’s himself, the Artificial Intelligences, and then the Professor. Who else could be needed? At the thought of the Professor the boy feels a slight twinge of guilt: the Professor does not wish for him to as- sume human form, he says that it is a waste of energy. But his friend has done so, and he wants to at least look a little like her. Perhaps he’ll transform himself for her, maybe into those small creatures that she calls ’ladybugs’ and which make her laugh. The road ripples in a curtsey before him, the rough sur- face becoming smooth and translucent like glass. He starts skating, drops to the ground level with a bound, and starts running again. The Artificial Intelligence responsible for pedestrian traf- fic appears suddenly before him. It is a metal beanstalk with three bright and vertically-arranged eyes. One red, one yel- low, and one green. It blocks the road ahead with a bony hand and illuminates its topmost eye, which glows deeply red. As soon as it recog- nises him, its yellow eye comes alight. u 14 u u PROLOGUE: THE MYSTERIOUS CITY u “Sir, you were exceeding the speed limit” the AI reminds him. “May I ask you to slow down? The boy waves a hand in front of it: AUTHORISATION DENIED. The eye of the traffic controller suddenly becomes green, and the creature moves to let him pass. “Of course sir, please proceed.” The boy runs until the palatial buildings around him start merging into a single colourful blur. With a leap and a bound, he vaults a great bridge of entwined cables, and touches down onto the road on the other side. He spots an infor- mation-transport AI: it looks like a large squashed egg and is slipping speedily along the street. It must be an important AI, probably working for the Professor. It can give him passage. The boy jumps onto it from above, his fingers covered in a thin electrical discharge. He lays his hands on the surface and holds on so as not to fall. They pass the first junction. The second junction. Then the boy jumps off and transfers onto the enamel chin of a waste-disposal AI. It is a little slower, but it takes him in the right direction. The Wall reaches high into the sky and is made from black bricks. Every time the boy skims its surface, clear blue lightning arcs between the Wall and his fingertips. The Wall repels him; it encircles the city and the boy cannot fly over or through it, he cannot pass it. Set in the Wall is a single portal, but right now the great doors are closed. The boy presses the palm of his hand to it u 15 u u THE NAMELESS CITY u and on a floating screen that appears from nowhere four shining letters appear. It is the name of the boy, even if he is not aware of it. The door crumbles in a rain of dust: one moment it is there, the next it is not. Beyond the threshold, the boy can see the long draw- bridge that disappears on the horizon. It floats in a void, as there is nothing beyond the city, not a moat, or a valley, or a road.